Indiana has 15 non-conference games scheduled for the next seven years. None of them are against Power 4 opponents.
The Hoosiers were scheduled to play a home-and-home series with Notre Dame in 2030 and 2031, but that series was canceled on Monday. While the cancellation came in tandem with Notre Dame announcing it would resume its series with USC in 2030, the cancellation reportedly came at the defending national champions’ request.
The Indiana-Notre Dame series set for 2030/31 has been called off, according to sources. Indiana made the request to cancel, per a source. Notre Dame will be playing USC in both seasons.@Matt_Fortuna and @ByPatForde first
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) August 3, 2026
Indiana, which didn’t play any power conference opponents in non-conference play in either of Curt Cignetti’s first two seasons as head coach, is now scheduled to play the following non-conference opponents over the next seven years:
- 2026: North Texas, Howard (FCS), Western Kentucky
- 2027: Kennesaw State, Indiana State (FCS), UMass
- 2028: Austin Peay (FCS), Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio)
- 2029: Ball State, Eastern Illinois (FCS), Western Kentucky
- 2030: Indiana State (FCS), Delaware
- 2032: UConn
According to CBS Sports’ Cody Nagel, Indiana is one of only two Power 4 teams – the other being Texas Tech, which still has openings on its non-conference schedule for the next three seasons – that is scheduled to play zero Power 4 opponents in non-conference play from 2024-29.
Criticized for Indiana’s soft non-conference scheduling last year after the Hoosiers canceled their home-and-home series with Virginia in 2027 and 2028, Cignetti said Indiana “figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy,” noting that 12 of the SEC’s 16 teams played three games against non-Power 4 opponents last season.
That argument no longer passes muster for Cignetti, however, as SEC teams will play nine conference games beginning this season while also being required to play one non-conference game against a Power 4 opponent. That’s led to calls for the Big Ten to add its own requirement for its teams to play a Power 4 non-conference game, but commissioner Tony Petitti said at last week’s Big Ten Media Days that the Big Ten would hold off on changing its scheduling policy until a format is determined for the next round of College Football Playoff expansion.
“We've talked a lot about scheduling in our AD room and with our coaches about what's coming next and what's the right way to do things. I will tell you that our focus now is seeing clarity around the playoff and access and how that's going to work before we make the next decision,” Petitti said.
Should the Big Ten add a requirement for teams to play a Power 4 non-conference game in the future, Indiana will be forced to make changes to its schedule for upcoming seasons. Until that happens, however, it’s clear that Cignetti will look to keep Indiana’s non-conference schedules as easy as possible, believing the grind of a Big Ten schedule is more than enough to give his team the best chance to make the College Football Playoff and win another national title.
“We play who's on the schedule,” Cignetti said at Big Ten Media Days. “I suspect down the road, something will happen with scheduling, sort of standardizing scheduling. You got two conferences that are head and shoulders sort of above the rest right now, and I think there'll be some standardization. But we're not there this year.”
